Federal service to Bay Area Startup

[Anonymous]

OP here. So the offer came through, job is on the Peninsula, so I think that means schools may not be too bad.

Pay is $170k, so I think a house budget of $700k seems feasible? Would I be able to find a two or three bedroom condo or townhouse with good schools on the peninsula? Are there other cost of living items I might be shocked by?

Also, leaving Federal service after 10 years, but took FMLA at some point in between with leave without pay when my son was born (Fed 'maternity leave'), does that time off push out the 10 year vesting date?

[Anonymous]

You are so fortunate OP. Enjoy the Bay Area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pp again. I do think think there is a tech bubble.

As for salary bump, depending on what you do. Regular programmers do not get paid a lot higher than this area, unless working for FLAG (Facebook, LinkedIn, Apple, google). The hours are crazy - my friend went home at 5pm for a Sunday dinner with his family, and was labeled a slacker by his boss. You have to be in management or very young to be worthwhile.

Programming is a young person's game! Really if you are over 30, you're a dinosaur!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So the offer came through, job is on the Peninsula, so I think that means schools may not be too bad.

Pay is $170k, so I think a house budget of $700k seems feasible? Would I be able to find a two or three bedroom condo or townhouse with good schools on the peninsula? Are there other cost of living items I might be shocked by?

Also, leaving Federal service after 10 years, but took FMLA at some point in between with leave without pay when my son was born (Fed 'maternity leave'), does that time off push out the 10 year vesting date?

schools *are* bad. most parents I know on the Peninsula are paying $30k+/year for private school. My manager is moving to a rental in los altos for public schools, not sure what he is paying-- probably $4k/mo.

You are not going to be able to buy anything other than a tear-down for $700k where there are good schools. East palo alto is no longer like anacostia but actually, they've both improved but anacostia may be better than EPA. Redfin will tell you what's available to purchase: https://www.redfin.com/city/17151/CA/San-Francisco/real-estate#!max_price=800000&num_beds=2&num_baths=2.0&v=8&sst=&lat=37.37758327871214&long=-122.13319610449668&zoomLevel=11&market=sanfrancisco

[Anonymous]

a 3 bed 3 bath single family home in mountain view rents for $5000 a month.

[Anonymous]

All my friends on the peninsula send their kids to Catholic school. $170 isn't much out there. Will your spouse be working too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All my friends on the peninsula send their kids to Catholic school. $170 isn't much out there. Will your spouse be working too?

Not till kids are older. This is 40% pay bump from DC. We would be moving from a home in Burke to something smaller. What area iS Burke like with good schools, ok but not great commute, and semi affordable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:pp again. I do think think there is a tech bubble.

As for salary bump, depending on what you do. Regular programmers do not get paid a lot higher than this area, unless working for FLAG (Facebook, LinkedIn, Apple, google). The hours are crazy - my friend went home at 5pm for a Sunday dinner with his family, and was labeled a slacker by his boss. You have to be in management or very young to be worthwhile.

Programming is a young person's game! Really if you are over 30, you're a dinosaur!!

How have the fundamentals of programming changed? Most new languages seem to be object orientated, mostly derived or even built on top of java. NoSQL is modestly new, but basically like a sophisticated hash databases which allow for lossy but high performance transactions (think big data where you don't mind errors or dropped records, versus RDBs transacting sales or bank records).

The last big change was object orientated programming and maybe the network-centric approach in java. You might point to new developments in functional programming, but Lisp precedes that by like 30 years.

There are new languages, but true programmers know how to solve problems, engineer and test robust software and systems, and have a keen insight into algorithms. Knowing the syntax to the language du jour is really only useful for folks hired to implement things like the text input box on the website.

Heck, iOS & MacOS are built on unix, Android on Linux. What is old is new again.